Firmware 7.0 Beta Discussion

[smac]

I wonder how Tesla is getting the car to change lanes safely in order "steer to the side of the road." We know that the driver is going to have to initiate regular lane changes, because there is no rear-facing radar to check for oncoming traffic. Pulling over requires changing lanes, and if the car is doing it while slowing down, that would seem even more risky than "at speed" lane changes.

Any ideas?

No ideas other than hazards.

If the description is to be believed, that the nag only comes on when the car can't see lanes, by extension it can't see the edge of the road. (Especially in dazzling sunlight).

Incapacitated driver is one thing, but "fallen asleep driver" is much more likely. Maybe when the car has reached this state of nagging, it also turns the radio up to 11 and plays The Boo Radleys ?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Judging by the reaction to v7 leaks, a Chimpanzee could take his place.

I've been waiting to make an "Infinite number of monkeys" joke.

 

[LetsGoFast]

No ideas other than hazards.

If the description is to be believed, that the nag only comes on when the car can't see lanes, by extension it can't see the edge of the road. (Especially in dazzling sunlight).

Incapacitated driver is one thing, but "fallen asleep driver" is much more likely. Maybe when the car has reached this state of nagging, it also turns the radio up to 11 and plays The Boo Radleys ?

The assumption is that the driver is not available to drive, so I'd be OK with taking increased risk to park the car in that scenario. What is the alternative, just drive at full speed until you hit something?

 

[smac]

The assumption is that the driver is not available to drive, so I'd be OK with taking increased risk to park the car in that scenario. What is the alternative, just drive at full speed until you hit something?

It was tongue in cheek, I didn't suggest driving full speed into anything :S

But seriously if the camera is dazzled, the car can't see behind it, and the nag is constantly ignored. Personally I think gradually slowing down in a straight line, hazards on, and until lane "lock" can be redetermined, is the most prudent thing to do.

(And blare the radio, just in case the driver is asleep!)

 

[FlasherZ]

(And blare the radio, just in case the driver is asleep!)

With the few bars of "wake up, little suzy" repeating over and over?

 

[Cyclone]

True.

Stopping dead on a highway, even with hazards on, would probably be a lot worse.

Yes. I almost lost my mother because an idiot got a flat and decided to park on the Interstate, right after the crest of a hill, without blinkers, and wait for roadside. My mom only recalls seeing the car and doesn't remember the crash, nor the other two cars behind her that crashing into her. Thankfully, she was revived on the way to the hospital but has permanent spinal damage. The first car could have turned on their blinkers and pulled to the side of the road, but decided that parking on the Interstate was safer. I would welcome Tesla's implementation with open arms to avoid accidents like that!

 

[HankLloydRight]

I hear through the grapevine that Brennan Boblett, who managed the UI/UX folks, is leaving the company this week, or left last week.

I wonder why he's gone. Wonder if he simply decided it was time to seek other opportunities, or whether maybe 7.0's design and the early reaction to it isn't pleasing The Elon and some heads had to roll?.

This is interesting... I wonder which side of the "skeuomorphism" side of the fence he's on, here are a few of his tweets from 2013: (Brennan Boblett (@designevokes) | Twitter)

Sure, a lot can change in two years, but maybe he was forced out because he was trying to buck the new "flat design" trend.

And for reference, here is iOS6 (left) versus iOS7 (right):

 

[gizmoboy]

This is interesting... I wonder which side of the "skeuomorphism" side of the fence he's on, here are a few of his tweets from 2013: (Brennan Boblett (@designevokes) | Twitter)

View attachment 95864

Sure, a lot can change in two years, but maybe he was forced out because he was trying to buck the new "flat design" trend.

And for reference, here is iOS6 (left) versus iOS7 (right):


View attachment 95865

I think it's extremely naive to think that any one person short of the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company is going to hijack the design sensibilities of a company against the will of the leadership.

I guarantee you that the look of V7 is no fluke, and is either research-driven or a principled change dictated from the highest levels.

It may succeed or fail, but it's not happening by accident or on a whim (unless possibly the whim of Musk, but I am skeptical of that).

 

[HankLloydRight]

I think it's extremely naive to think that any one person short of the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company is going to hijack the design sensibilities of a company against the will of the leadership.

It may succeed or fail, but it's not happening by accident or on a whim (unless possibly the whim of Musk, but I am skeptical of that).

I did not say nor imply either of these things. Just that people are speculating what this guy's role was in the UI team, and it appears that he was not on the side of "flat design" as people have speculated above. But a company like Tesla has pretty small teams that this guy was likely in charge of.

So the fact the he quit or was fired or forced out, while previously maintaining a stated preference (2 years ago) for skeuomorphism, is "interesting." That's all I was saying.

 

[gizmoboy]

I did not say nor imply either of these things. Just that people are speculating what this guy's role was in the UI team, and it appears that he was not on the side of "flat design" as people have speculated above. But a company like Tesla has pretty small teams that this guy was likely in charge of.

View attachment 95876

So the fact the he quit or was fired or forced out, while previously maintaining a stated preference (2 years ago) for skeuomorphism, is "interesting." That's all I was saying.

Hank, I wasn't intending to call you out specifically with this; I shouldn't have quoted you. I was responding to a fairly strong theme in the 7.0 outrage here on TMC which suggests that Tesla is incompetent and unaware of the impact of their design, and had they only known, they wouldn't have messed with things.

 

[smac]

With the few bars of "wake up, little suzy" repeating over and over?

Exactly

On a serious note, whilst cars stopped in the central lanes of a freeway is obviously a dangerous situation (and no-one here wants to see.) Drivers falling asleep at the wheel is probably a higher cause of accidents.

Sleep-deprived driving - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So Tesla and the AP system are in a good position to help in this regard. As AndyW suggests the car can attempt to pull over, but without rear radar/camera (can they use the backup camera?), it is doing it somewhat blind. Proactively attempting to wake a driver to take control wouldn't be an unreasonable thing to add to the Model S's arsenal.

Probably a loud alarm clock sound rather than the radio might make more sense though (If for no other reason than to prevent a 100 page thread on TMC about the correct song to be used )

 

[mknox]

And for reference, here is iOS6 (left) versus iOS7 (right):

Seeing that, I sure do miss the old iOS 6. And not to pile on Apple, but I thought the Windows 7 aero glass look was a lot nicer than Windows 8/8.1/10.

 

[R²B]

So with the Model X launching today, are we expecting that it won't be shipping with 7.0?

 

[tomas]

Or will X be on same version firmware? Everyone assumes S and X will have same firmware. Why? Did Tesla state somewhere and I missed it?

 

[JST]

Or will X be on same version firmware? Everyone assumes S and X will have same firmware. Why? Did Tesla state somewhere and I missed it?

I haven't seen that stated anywhere. I think the assumption has been: a) Tesla will do what they can to launch the Model X with as many features as possible, b) Tesla would like to present a shiny new interface along with their shiny new car, c) if 7.0 is "done enough" for the Model X, presumably it will also be "done enough" to ship to the Model S.

Obviously, any one of those assumptions may be flawed. We could see the X launch tonight with 7.0 but some features not available. Or we could see the X launch tonight with no mention of delayed feature availability, since all the cars they are delivering today are Founders vehicles. Or we could see the X launch tonight with AP fully active, but still wait weeks to see it become available on the S.

Who knows?

 

[apacheguy]

MX will ship with 7.0 but the wider rollout won't happen until another couple weeks. My 2 cents.

 

[Stoneymonster]

MX will ship with 7.0 but the wider rollout won't happen until another couple weeks. My 2 cents.

I had Oct 15 in the pool (or would have if post time priority had any effect) so that sounds just about right to me!

 

[tomas]

Or will X be on same version firmware? Everyone assumes S and X will have same firmware. Why? Did Tesla state somewhere and I missed it?

Lemme clarify. Isn't it also possible X has different firmware thread? Not S 7.0 but X 1.0?

 

[slevit1md]

MX will ship with 7.0 but the wider rollout won't happen until another couple weeks. My 2 cents.

I can imagine that this would cause an awful lot of pissed off MS owners (more than there are already). People have been waiting the better part of a year for their cars to finally have the promised autopilot features enabled. If they release it for the Model X before the Model S, then it's kind of just a slap in the face to all the S owners. I understand wanting to have the X released with all the newest features, but if the software is complete, it needs to be rolled out to MS at the same time. Ignoring current customers to get the latest and greatest thing released would be setting a very poor precedent.

 

[JST]

Lemme clarify. Isn't it also possible X has different firmware thread? Not S 7.0 but X 1.0?

Anything is possible, though you'd think they'd want to maintain as much commonality as possible.